70 killed in Congo attacks, says UN

(MENAFN -Arab News) KINSHASA, Congo: The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo says that at least 70 people were killed in the Masisi territory of troubled eastern Congo

In a statement, the UN said that the majority of the victims were hacked to death with machetes

A peacekeeping mission team is now on the ground to verify the allegations. The UN did not specify when the attack in the villages of Nyamaboko I and II occurred

In New York, United Nations spokesman Martin Nesirky said the UN mission is “concerned.

Masisi, a mineral-rich area of North Kivu province in eastern Congo, has been in the crosshairs of Congo’s conflict for years. Numerous armed groups are active there

Mission chief Martin Kobler said in a statement he had “serious concern over the allegations of the gross human rights violations deemed unacceptable. Any person involved in such acts should face justice.” He said the crimes had been “committed mainly by armed groups to spread terror.

Millions of people have died from violence, disease and hunger in eastern Congo since 1996 in conflict fuelled by foreign powers and a struggle for the region’s deposits of gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt and uranium

Much of the fighting has been in North and South Kivu provinces, which border eastern neighbours including Uganda and Rwanda.